A New Year… and Not Quite the Same You
Insights and reflections for leaders carrying momentum, meaning, and realities of a New Year
A few weeks ago, I revisited my ancestry results. It is something I first explored years ago with curiosity but no major revelations.
This time, a new update offered a small but meaningful insight.
It suggested that I am likely a night owl and that I carry a higher than average determination in my DNA.
I smiled when I read that.
Because the determination I feel really does come from those who came before me. And yes, I once was a night owl.
But that update reminded me of something else too.
That we enter each new year with more than goals or plans or lists.
We enter with lineage.
With memory.
With traits shaped long before we learned their names.
With the quiet strength inherited from those who raised us and those we lost.
It made me pause long enough to ask a question.
Am I the same me I was twelve months ago?
Or am I becoming someone new?
The truth, of course, is somewhere in between.
I am still me.
But not untouched.
Not unchanged.
Not unaware of what the past year required.
As that question settled, it helped me see more clearly what this year has shaped in me.
What This Year Taught Me
This year asked a great deal of me as a leader and as a person carrying grief.
It stretched my capacity and softened my edges.
It sharpened my clarity and widened my compassion.
It reminded me that growth is not always loud or visible.
Sometimes it looks like endurance amidst challenge upon challenge.
Sometimes it looks like restraint.
Sometimes it looks like coming home to yourself again.
And I know many of you feel that too.
Because while The Mourning Manager centers the loss of loved ones, I also hear from leaders grieving:
• roles you outgrew
• workplace relationships that revealed more than you expected
• layoffs or reorganizations that shifted your footing
• identities tied to work that you released
• new realities in your organization that required emotional adjustment
• transitions that carried weight long after the moment passed
Loss has many forms. And leaders carry more of it than most people ever see.
This is why the question of who we are becoming matters. Grief changes us, yes, but so does clarity, capacity, and purpose. And the combination is what carried me through the past year.
What This Next Season Is Asking of Me
As momentum and meaning continued rising in my own life, I saw them rising here too, especially in these first sixty days of The Mourning Manager.
When I pressed publish on the first issue of The Mourning Manager sixty days ago, I did not know what would unfold. I only sensed that leaders were carrying grief quietly, privately, and often alone.
What I did not expect was how many of you would write back.
How many of you would say:
🖤 This is how I feel, but I did not have the words.
🖤 I want to keep leading well, even while I am still healing.
🖤 I thought I was the only one trying to hold both.
In just sixty days, this community has reached readers in twenty five states and even outside the U.S., including India, reminding me that leaders everywhere are carrying more than they name.
These early months have confirmed something important.
You can lead well and grieve well.
You do not have to choose.
And you do not have to hide one to honor the other.
This is the kind of leadership space I hoped to build.
Stepping Into 2026 With Energized Clarity
As I look toward this next season, I realize I have more unfolding than I could have imagined even four months ago.
This community.
New projects.
Unexpected opportunities.
A sense of purpose that continues to open in front of me.
And yet I am still managing my grief.
Still navigating my own becoming.
Still moving through the quiet work of healing.
Holding both is what makes this next part true.
What I am learning is that it is possible to have momentum while you are still managing the moment. Both can be true. Both can be honored.
And that is, in many ways, the heart of The Mourning Manager.
This year reminded me that strength and softness can coexist.
That becoming is both inherited and chosen.
And that truth is shaping how I step into 2026.
As I step into this new year, I am choosing to move with energized clarity.
A way of leading that holds both momentum and meaning.
A way of moving that honors what I am carrying and what I am called to step into next.
Energized clarity is the strength to move forward with intention.
It is focus without overwhelm.
Determination without depletion.
Purpose aligned with pace.
This is the posture guiding me into the new year.
Clear, grounded, and aligned with who I am becoming.
As you enter the new year, I hope you carry both your momentum and your meaning. I hope you honor what remained steady, acknowledge what changed, and trust the parts of you that are still becoming. You are allowed to grow at your own pace, to lead with honesty, and to shape a future that reflects both your strength and your story.
Heading into the new year different, but determined.
🖤 Carolyn’s daughter